Culinary Roots - The Booming of Ethnic Foods

Gone are the days when world food map was restricted to sauces and condiments or to cuisines such as Asian, Italian and Mexican. The culinary industry is striving to satisfy the demand for new and different flavours by introducing more regional and ethnic foods with bold & sophisticated tastes.

When the food map is broadened to include foods specific or particular to a distinctive culture, religion, language, or the like; there is a wide scope to explore the new & different foods. From fresh to exotic flavours, unusual combinations can be seen everywhere. The sudden surge in the popularity of regional foods is because of the international travel, culinary tourism, immigration and global trade that are driving considerable interest in ethnic foods.

The trend of emphasizing only on the popular cuisines is no more in the show now. People have started exploring and enjoying new ethnic flavours now, thanks to social media which played a vital role in educating and making people aware of the range of ethnic foods that they can reach out to.

Due to the social media exposure everyone knows or has at least heard of a particular ingredient/dish even though we have not even seen or tasted it. This exposure gives an urge to look for more, ending up in promoting culinary tourism or import & export trades by default.

The concept of Ethnic food works differently as compared to popular cuisines. It is about going in depth and being very particular about the dish or ingredient itself. For example; Filipino cuisine has never been a popular choice on an international platform, but their favourite purple yam is hitting the stores across the globe. People from another country probably have never eaten it, but they sure are fascinated by the idea of naturally purple sweets and desserts this yam induces in. In fact, Filipino food is hot right now in the culinary industry just because of this yam.

It is the same that goes with the food from any other country that has a low food profile because people haven’t experienced their food yet.

More than a trend, the boom in ethnic foods is becoming a movement that is seriously taken and promoted by the celebrity chefs, food bloggers, food enthusiasts and even the social media foodies. It is a conscious effort even the manufacturers are taking to develop a much bigger market for the regional foods that the world has yet to taste.